ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Public libraries in several states are pulling the racy romance trilogy "Fifty Shades of Grey" from shelves or deciding not to order the best-seller at all, saying it's too steamy or too poorly written.

Even in the age of e-books and tablets, banning a book from a public library still carries weight because libraries still play such a vital role in providing people access to books.

"When a book is removed from the shelf, folks who can't afford a Nook or a Kindle, the book is no longer available to them," said Deborah Caldwell Stone, the deputy director of the American Library Association's office for intellectual freedom.

"Fifty Shades of Grey," a novel about bondage, wild sex and yes, love, has been called "mommy porn" because of its popularity among middle-aged women. It has become so well-known that "Saturday Night Live" performed a skit about it, joking that a Kindle with "Fifty Shades" uploaded on it was the perfect Mother's Day gift.

This week, the steamy books hold the top three spots on the New York Times best-seller list.

In Gwinnett County, Ga., a suburb northeast of Atlanta, all 15 library branches will not carry the book.

"We do not collect erotica at Gwinnett County Public Library. That's part of our materials management collection policy. So, E L James' three books in the trilogy fit that description," said Deborah George, the county library's director of materials management.

A copy of "Fifty Shades" sits on George's cluttered desk.

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Wedged in it are nearly a dozen yellow sticky notes at various pages of sultriness.

In a nutshell, here's the plot: Anastasia Steele, a virgin who has just graduated college, meets Christian Grey, a rich and impeccably handsome young entrepreneur. Grey shows Steele his "playroom," full of whips, ropes and sex toys, and asks her to sign a contract to be his "submissive" sex partner. As the sex gets more daring and Steele's emotions more tangled, drama ensues.

Books with sexual content, and just as controversial as "Fifty Shades," have long been -- at least for a time -- banned during their debuts. Gwinnett County, Ga., carries about a million books in its system, including the steamy passages from Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" and Vladimir Nabokov's provocative "Lolita." These and other novels have gone on to reach best-seller lists quickly, and some are taught in public classrooms.

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